Drivers are set to go faster than ever before at Mount Panorama during the Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend.

Drivers are set to go faster than ever before at Mount Panorama during the Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend.

A new track surface and increasingly stiff competition have pushed lap times to new limits as drivers break new ground at the track.

German ace Maro Engel set the fastest lap on Friday, a scorching two minute, 4.4 second effort that eclipsed decades of competition at the mountain. Former V8 Supercars champion and Bathurst 1000 winner Rick Kelly was in hot pursuit of Engel's time, and said the cars could go even faster.

''Low two minute, four second laps are pretty reasonable around here and we should go even faster in qualifying,'' he said. ''These cares are intense, but it's a lot of fun.''

Kelly heads the return of Nissan's GT-R ''Godzilla'' to Bathurst, a machine that shaped Australian motor sport in the 1990s. He added GT cars racing at the 12 Hour are much faster than V8 Supercars. ''The Godzilla car is incredible. It's not like anything I've driven,'' he said.

Tribute: The Maranello Motorsport team and the trophy named after the late Allan Simonsen. Photo: Nathan Wong

Lamborghini racer David Russell was well under the V8 Supercars lap record at Bathurst during the first practice session for the 12 Hour, a time drivers normally use to cautiously familiarise themselves with the circuit. ''The track is going to get faster between now and Sunday,'' he said.

Drivers fighting for pole position on Saturday will be in the running for the new Allan Simonsen pole position trophy, named after a Danish racer who regularly set the track alight.

The trophy pays tribute to a former Australian GT champion who was often the man to beat around Mount Panorama, before he was killed in a tragic crash at the 24-hour Le Mans event last year.